In this note we give a probabilistic proof of the existence of an n-vertex graph Gn, n=1, 2, [ctdot ], such that, for some constant c>0, the edges of Gn cannot be covered by n−c log n complete bipartite subgraphs of Gn. This result improves a previous bound due to F. R. K. Chung and is the best possible up to a constant.

We determine lower bounds for the number of random binary vectors, chosen uniformly from vectors of weight k, needed to obtain a dependent set.

We show that an old but not well-known lower bound for the crossing number of a graph yields short proofs for a number of bounds in discrete plane geometry which were considered hard before: the number of incidences among points and lines, the maximum number of unit distances among n points, the minimum number of distinct distances among n points.

Suppose that [Cscr]={cij[ratio ]i, j[ges ]1} is a collection of i.i.d. nonnegative continuous random variables and suppose T is a rooted, directed tree on vertices labelled 1,2,[ctdot ],n. Then the ‘cost’ of T is defined to be c(T)=[sum ](i,j)∈Tcij, where (i, j) denotes the directed edge from i to j in the tree T. Let Tn denote the ‘optimal’ tree, i.e. c(Tn)=min{c(T)[ratio ]T is a directed, rooted tree in with n vertices}. We establish general conditions on the asymptotic behaviour of the moments of the order statistics of the variables c11, c12, [ctdot ], cin which guarantee the existence of sequences {an}, {bn}, and {dn} such that b−1n(c(Tn)−an)→N(0, 1) in distribution, d−1nc(Tn)→1 in probability, and d−1nE(c(Tn))→1 as n→∞, and we explicitly determine these sequences. The proofs of the main results rely upon the properties of general random mappings of the set {1, 2, [ctdot ], n} into itself. Our results complement and extend those obtained by McDiarmid [9] for optimal branchings in a complete directed graph.

For a graph G=(V, E) on n vertices, where 3 divides n, a triangle factor is a subgraph of G, consisting of n/3 vertex disjoint triangles (complete graphs on three vertices). We discuss the problem of determining the minimal probability p=p(n), for which a random graph G∈[Gscr](n, p) contains almost surely a triangle factor. This problem (in a more general setting) has been studied by Alon and Yuster and by Ruciński, their approach implies p=O((log n/n)1/2). Our main result is that p=O(n)−3/5) already suffices. The proof is based on a multiple use of the Janson inequality. Our approach can be extended to improve known results about the threshold for the existence of an H-factor in [Gscr](n, p) for various graphs H.

Let Q be a stochastic matrix and I be the identity matrix. We show by a direct combinatorial approach that the coefficients of the characteristic polynomial of the matrix I−Q are log-concave. We use this fact to prove a new bound for the second-largest eigenvalue of Q.

Thomassen [6] conjectured that if I is a set of k−1 arcs in a k-strong tournament T, then T−I has a Hamiltonian cycle. This conjecture was proved by Fraisse and Thomassen [3]. We prove the following stronger result. Let T=(V, A) be a k-strong tournament on n vertices and let X1, X2, [ctdot ], Xl be a partition of the vertex set V of T such that [mid ]X1[mid ][les ][mid ]X2[mid ][les ][ctdot ][les ][mid ]Xl[mid ]. If k[ges ][sum ]l−1i=1[lfloor][mid ]Xi[mid ]/2[rfloor]+[mid ]Xl[mid ], then T−∪li=1{xy∈A[ratio ]x, y∈Xi} has a Hamiltonian cycle. The bound on k is sharp.

Let D1 and D2 be two dice with k and l integer faces, respectively, where k and l are two positive integers. The game Gn consists of tossing each die n times and summing the resulting faces. The die with the higher total wins the game. We examine the question of which die wins game Gn more often, for large values of n. We also give an example of a set of three dice which is non-transitive in game Gn for infinitely many values of n.

We show that there are almost surely only finitely many times at which there are at least four ‘tied’ favourite edges for a simple random walk. This (partially) answers a question of Erdős and Révész.

In this paper we show that the list chromatic index of the complete graph Kn is at most n. This proves the list-chromatic conjecture for complete graphs of odd order. We also prove the asymptotic result that for a simple graph with maximum degree d the list chromatic index exceeds d by at most [Oscr](d2/3√log d).